U.K.-based book publisher Bonnier Publishing has launched Echo Publishing, a new imprint in Australia.

Echo Publishing is carved out from the current adult program from The Five Mile Press, which will form the foundations of this new publishing house, allowing The Five Mile Press to focus on children’s books and allowing Echo Publishing to drive ahead with adult, publishing 50 titles per year.

Echo Publishing will have new office space and a new team.

“Echo Publishing represents the invaluable importance of generations of storytelling and the logo, incorporating a local lyrebird which is known for its infamous ability to mimic and share calls, captures the essence of Echo Publishing’s mission,” says Alexandra Maramenides, Managing Director of Echo Publishing & The Five Mile Press.

“We want to be the ultimate Australian publishing house, attracting exceptional local writers, photographers and talents," says Maramenides. "In addition to specializing in narrative non-fiction (including commercial biographies) and photography, we will be launching a fiction list. Our aim is to give our readers the very best reading experience, across several genres. We will give our authors and titles the personal touch and support that they all need, whilst extending their commercial reach using the strong sales and distribution arm of Five Mile Press.’’

Echo Publishing will use Five Mile Press for trade sales and distribution with immediate effect.

Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter and business paper Dagens industri won awards in the annual international Society for New Design awards.

The Society for News Design gave out its global Best of News Design awards on March 22, and Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter was one of the biggest winners with 78 awards, including two silver medals. The paper is also competing for the top prize which will be given out later, World's Best Designed Paper, which it won in 2013.

Swedish business daily Dagens industri was also a winner, with 10 special mention Awards of Excellence.

Lars Dahmén, currently CEO for southern Swedish daily newspaper company HD–Sydsvenskan, will take over as head of Bonnier’s business area Magazines at the beginning of 2016, when current head Michael Cordsen retires. On August 1, 2015, Dahmén will also take on the post of CEO for Swedish magazine publisher Bonnier Tidskrifter, succeeding Mats Carleson.

Lars Dahmén has served as CEO for daily paper Sydsvenskan since the beginning of 2011, and in 2013 became editor-in-chief as well. In September 2014, he became CEO for the newly formed HD–Sydsvenskan, following the merger of Sydsvenskan with regional paper Helsingborgs Dagblad (HD). Previously, he has served as CEO for IDG’s Swedish operations and editor-in-chief for Computer Sweden magazine, among other positions.

“Lars Dahmén has done a fantastic job with the merger of HD and Sydsvenskan,” says Tomas Franzén, CEO for Bonnier AB. “And with this experience and his background at IDG, he has good insight into the challenges our magazines are facing. I’m very pleased that he has agreed to lead Magazines into the future.”

Mats Carleson has chosen at the same time to leave his position as CEO for Bonnier Tidskrifter on August 1. He will continue to head Bonnier Tidskrifter until August 1, when Lars Dahmén will take over. Carleson started in summer 2012 as CEO for Bonnier Tidskrifter, where he had previously served as executive vice president.

Michael Cordsen started at Bonnier Publications in 1979 and took over as CEO in 1998. Since 2013, he has been the business area head for Magazines. He will continue in both positions until the beginning of 2016.

“Michael Cordsen is retiring after a long and successful career within Bonnier,” says Franzén. “As CEO, he has delivered strong profits over a long succession of years, through the successful launch of magazines such as Science Illustrated History, among others.

“During 2014 and 2013, Magazines had annual profits of more than SEK 300 million, which is double the profits of the previous years,” says Franzén. “Mats Carleson’s hard work has contributed significantly to this improvement.”

Bonnier’s business area Magazines includes Swedish Bonnier Tidskrifter, Copenhagen-based Bonnier Publications and Bonnier Corporation in the U.S. The business area had sales of SEK 3.9 billion in 2014. The publishers’ popular titles include Science Illustrated, Saveur, Popular Science, amelia, Damernas Värld and many others.

Lars Dahmén will be succeeded at HD–Sydsvenskan by Pontus Bodelsson, who will start as CEO on August 1.

Swedish TV4 Group and Nordic pay network C More have started a new digital cooperation focusing on services and offerings. C More will also be the name of the new subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service currently under development that will be launched later this year, a project being run in cooperation with Svensk Filmindustri and Finnish network MTV.

"The TV4 Group and C More are joining forces regarding services and offers," says Casten Almqvist, CEO for the TV4 Group and head of Bonnier's business area Broadcasting. "The common denominator for the new ecosystem we're building is that we're putting even more clearly focus on the user."

C More is being transformed from a linear broadcasting company into a digital-first company. C More's linear channels will be an extension of the new SVOD service, which will be the new main offering to both service providers and direct customers. All of C More's current VOD services (Filmnet, C Sports and C More Play) as well as sections of TV4 Play Premium will be migrated to the new C More during the year.

"We're facing the third wave of the OTT market, with a powerful increase in subscribers, services and offerings," says Manfred Aronsson, CEO for C More. OTT stands for over-the-top, which is media provided over the Internet directly to consumers rather than through an operator or other service provider. "With the new SVOD service, which in the future will provide films, TV series, children's programs and sports, C More will take a sizeable chunk of the growth. Our linear channels will continue to play an important role, not least for inspiration and guidance, but the freedom to consume our content on demand will be the main reason to subscribe."

Development of the SVOD service, which will also be called C More, has been ongoing since fall 2014. The team consists of employees from TV4, C More, MTV and Svensk Filmindustri. It is part of Bonnier's ongoing OTT project, led by Cecilia Beck-Friis, Executive Vice President for the TV4 Group and CDO for Bonnier's Broadcasting business area.

"This is an important part of our digital transformation - we must offer our users a simpler and more seamless experience," says Beck-Friis. "It's not just about trying to create a single service to pull in all users, but to offer a smorgasbord of content, services and products that appeal in different ways to a broad audience. After C More's new SVOD service, our big AVOD (audio video on demand) initiative is next in line, as well as comprehensive projects with food and sports.”

As of today, Bonnier Business Press has acquired the majority share of digital learning materials publisher Clio Online. Founded in 2006, Clio Online has established itself as the market leader within digital learning materials for elementary schools in Denmark, effectively creating a new market.

Clio Online’s product portfolio offers a wide range of tailored and proven digital learning portals for a majority of subjects and grades, accompanied by an advanced learning management platform.

“Clio Online’s strong market position makes it possible for us to enter a highly interesting market segment and develop it even further,” says Anders Eriksson, business area head for Bonnier Business to Business.

“Digital learning materials in schools are one of the final frontiers in the digitalization of content and society. By acquiring Clio Online, we provide ourselves with the best possible partner for bringing that digitalization to markets outside of Denmark.”

Bonnier Business to Business also sees great opportunities to leverage Clio Online’s platform and conceptual skills into new applications for the corporate market.

“The acquisition will provide a boost as well as a solid foundation for our current and planned efforts in corporate e-learning and knowledge products,” says Anders Eriksson.

Today digital learning materials form around 40 percent of the total market for learning materials in Denmark – a share that has increased significantly in recent years. Clio Online is estimated to have around 35 percent of the Danish market, and now the company is ready to take on the international market.

“Clio Online has played a significant part in placing the Danish market at the forefront of digital educational resources in schools, on a global scale, and we are very eager to show new markets the potential of investing in more digital learning materials,” says founding partner Louise Herping Ellegaard, who will stay on in her current capacity in the management team of Clio Online together with the two other founding partners, Janus Benn Sørensen and Lasse Guldsborg.

“Together with Bonnier, we have both a deep knowledge of and a strong base in the Danish market for digital learning materials as well as a strong presence in a number of neighboring markets. This gives us a unique opportunity to become the leading provider of digital educational materials internationally. An opportunity we have every intention of exploiting,” says Janus Benn Sørensen.

Comic and humor book publisher Lappan to merge with Carlsen, putting out books together under the Lappan name in Germany.

Book publisher Carlsen Verlag, part of German book group Bonnier Media Deutschland GmbH, has announced the acquisition of Lappan Verlag, effective retroactively to January 1, 2015.

Founded in 1983 by Dieter Schwalm and five associates, Lappan today is the leading German publisher of cartoonand humor books, including the work of Uli Stein, the most popular cartoonist in the German market, among others. With important cartoonists such as Joscha Sauer and Ralph Ruthe, Carlsen is very successful in this genre as well.

Lappan’s list will be combined with Carlsen’s cartoon and humor list, and together they will come out under the label Lappan. Publisher Schwalm will continue to be responsible for the development of content and products in the future. Carlsen will take charge of sales and distribution immediately.

"We are very happy about this merge," says Joachim Kaufmann, Managing Director for Carlsen. "As the irrefutable market leader in the field of cartoons and humor titles, we can continuously push the development in a solid niche market."

"We look forward to the extremely pleasing task of joining the potential of the two market leaders in humor books and cartoons, to develop the program and to create ideas and products for the future," says Schwalm. "As one of the founders of Lappan, I'm proud that we'll make it happen under this label, which is also the recognition of the excellent work done by a magnificent team over many years."

New book self-publishing service to launch in Sweden. Rebecka Leffler explains.

More people than ever are aspiring to be writers, to be able to say “this is my book.” While this may be easier said than done for most, an upcoming service called Type & Tell from Swedish book publishing group Bonnierförlagen aims to give wannabe authors a leg up with self-publishing.

“Clearly there are many people writing, more than space allows for on Swedish publishers’ lists, who are interested in publishing their texts,” says Rebecka Leffler, business manager for Type & Tell. “It’s a positive development that an increasing number of individuals writing and distributing their texts, even if so far it’s in many different ways and to different purposes. The goal with Type & Tell is to help meet the different needs and wishes of tomorrow's authors. Self-publishing is a fast growing market and we want to be a part of it.”

With Type & Tell, writers will have complete control over their books and own the rights themselves. The service provides knowledge and expertise in key areas of importance for manuscript development, readability, packaging and marketing. It’s open for anyone – Type & Tell doesn’t decide if a book should or shouldn’t be published - and all it requires is for users to register and start an account, where it’s free to upload book projects, work with manuscripts, plan book launches and create a profile page. “Once you publish, either in digital or print, we charge a fee,” says Leffler. “We’ll also offer a range of other pay services to meet users’ needs while working on books and in order to reach readers once the book is published.”

While Type & Tell isn’t a publisher that markets or sells books to retailers, it can help authors themselves work on getting exposure in the right outlets and increase visibility online. “We are also talking with a number of important Swedish retailers on how we can help highlight and give exposure to self-published books.”

A beta release for Type & Tell is planned for summer. “Our goal for 2015 is to increase visibility of our service and brand and recruit users,” says Leffler. “We’ll be listening carefully to our users, who we will work closely with. Together with them, we’ll hone our service to be the best in the market!”

This year, Sweden's biggest fashion magazine, Damernas Värld(women's world), is 75 years old. The title is celebrating with a blazing anniversary issue with Editor-in-Chief and fashion icon Martina Bonnier on the cover for the first time. In her column in the issue, she gives a brief history of the magazine, from the war years to today.

"How do I summarize briefly everything that's happened in Sweden's biggest fashion magazine the past 75 years?" she writes. "Should I start in 1940, when the magazine changed its name from Flitiga Händer (busy hands) to Damernas Värld and had a sporty girl in a poppy field on the cover?

"Or should I begin in Halmstad, when I was a girl and the high point of the week was when my mother's copy of Damernas Värld popped through the mail slot and I eagerly flipped through to editor Lotta Lewenhaupt's department 'the absolute newest?'

"Maybe I should talk about the drastic journalistic decision of Bonnier Tidskrifter that VeckoRevyn's and Damernas Värld's editorial teams should switch places overnight - to the employees' astonishment (that's how I ended up working on the celebrating editorial team to begin with)?"

The entire issue breathes party and celebration. A fashion story interprets every decade, but in modern style. Since Damernas Värld is a magazine that is often passed on from mother to daughter, three generations of readers - a mother, daughter and grandmother from Västerås - were invited to the offices for a celebratory tea.

And the celebration continues with a special Stockholm subway campaign where the anniversary cover is being shown.

“Kit is a media company for a time where content consumption is mobile and socially distributed,” said Peder Bonnier, former head of digital at Bonnier Tidskrifter and co-founder of Kit. “It means that we aim to publish relevant content to every individual reader in the channel that the reader finds him or herself, rather than creating a mix of content for a previously defined group of people that we hope will find their way to our site.”

Naturally, that means that Kit is meant to be part of your Facebook feed and your Twitter chatter. But you can sign up for a newsletter, and there is also a website, of course.

Plans are for Kit to use an advertising model, although it has no advertising yet – Peder Bonnier says that advertising will come later once there is more content on offer.

“One of the biggest challenges is trying to keep a longer perspective on what we’re doing while still focusing on what we’re doing today and tomorrow,” says Peder Bonnier. “I really look forward to customers – to start getting feedback from advertisers about our products.”

Kit, which Peter Bonnier founded together with Fredrik Strömberg and Robert Brannström, all of whom left Bonnier Tidskrifter last year to start the new venture, is part of Bonnier Growth Media. Currently, Kit has some 15 employees and is hiring more.

Woo is the name of the new ad platform from Bonnier. At Woo.ad, advertisers will have the possibility of buying programmatic advertising and running campaigns across the Bonnier group's different Swedish video services.

To start with, Woo will offer video space on on-demand service TV4 Play as well as newspapers Expressen, Dagens Nyheter and Dagens industri's video content. This makes Woo one of the biggest and most powerful platforms available in the Swedish online-video market. Eventually, plans are for Woo to offer audience targeting based on first-party data from Bonnier and that additional partners will be added.

"Woo will be a 'premium programmatic' service, which with a simple and transparent offering gives advertisers the ability to buy, control and follow-up on campaigns across Bonnier's different Swedish video services," says Nicklas Norrby, who is responsible for Woo. "Woo is being launched with a clear ambition to continuously develop and change in time with the market."

The video ad platfrom Woo is a Bonnier group project led by the TV4 Group. Like the digital display ad network Bonnier Ad Network, which is led by Expressen/Bonnier News business area, the purpose is to provide advertisers the possibility to utilize Bonnier's entire digital breadth.

Bridgepoint acquires Ratos’ majority shares in and becomes new owner together with Bonnier Holding.

Bridgepoint announced today it has signed a contract to acquire Ratos’ majority shares in Nordic Cinema Group. Bonnier continues as long-term owner with 30 percent of the shares. NCG, of which SF Bio is a part, is the Nordic region’s leading cinema company with operations in Sweden, Finland, Norway and the Baltic states.

During spring 2013, the Nordic Cinema Group (NCG) was formed through a deal in which Bonnier-owned SF Bio merged with Ratos-owned Finnkino. Since the merger, the company has developed its position as Northern Europe’s leading player in cinemas through improving the movie theater experience, including the digitalization of all of its cinemas as well as through new ventures, most recently with its first establishment in the Oslo market.

While Ratos has decided to sell its majority share to Bridgepoint, Bonnier Holding will continue as owner with a 30 percent share of NCG. Prior to the deal, Bonnier's share was 40 percent.

“Bonnier has maintained, already from the 2013 deal, its ambition to keep a long-term perspective as owner of NCG, and therefore we’re happy to continue to develop the business together with Bridgepoint and the company’s executive management and employees," says Erik Haegerstrand, CEO for Bonnier Holding and owner representative on NCG’s board of directors. "The previous years' development under Ratos and Bonnier’s joint ownership has shown that the merger was a real step forward, giving resources both to invest in and improve the cinema-going experience, and for pursuing growth opportunities.”

Nordic Cinema Group is the leading cinema company in the Nordic region and Baltic states, with 66 cinemas, 444 screens and some 65,000 seats in 47 large and medium-sized cities. In 2014, the Nordic Cinema Group had sales of SEK 2.61 billion, and EBITA amounted to SEK 366 million.

Bonnier Holding is the parent company in the Bonnier group. It’s holdings include including Bonnier’s minority shares in the Nordic Cinema Group and Bisnode.

The world’s leading digital play studio – that would be Toca Boca– is branching out from apps for kids with a new video division dedicated to exploring the new TV and video landscape for kids. To spearhead the initiative, Toca Boca has appointed award-winning interactive designer, writer and director J Milligan, former creative director of the content innovation lab and digital media group at Sesame Workshop.

“Streaming services like Netflix and YouTube have transformed how kids define TV and video,” says Björn Jeffery, CEO for Toca Boca. “Video as a medium separates itself from TV with new formats, fewer constraints and different consumer expectations and we’re excited to dive into this new landscape.”

Milligan will work from and lead the company’s new studio opening in New York this spring. The new studio will be dedicated to the video division, which will complement the company’s popular apps; Toca Boca will continue to deliver apps for kids with new releases scheduled this spring and summer.

Toca Boca expects to introduce its first offerings from the video division in the second half of 2015. All new offerings will follow the footsteps of all Toca Boca digital toys by being uniquely designed from the children’s perspective.

Malin Häger will be the new sales director for Sweden's TV4 Group. She succeeds Michael Grimborg, who after 16 years in the position has decided to leave TV4 in the summer.

Häger was recruited to the TV4 Group's sales division in 2011, as administrative manager and change manager, and became customer manager in 2014. She previously served as executive vice president for media agency Starcom, where she was manager for TV asnd buying director for nine years. She has also worked as manager for TV as IUM, Mediavision, Marketing Group and TV3.

The nomination committee for Bonnier AB’s board of directors has proposed Kerstin Mogull and Peder Bonnier as new board members.

“The new board members will strengthen the board with insights in digital media development and a deepened international perspective,” says Erik Haegerstrand, CEO of Bonnier Holding and chair of the nominating committee. “Kerstin Mogull has overseen business development and strategy in one of Europe’s biggest media companies. Peder Bonnier has driven digital development both within a more traditional media environment as well as in a startup.”

Kerstin Mogull has been Managing Director since January 2014 for the Tate Galleries, with headquarters in London. Mogull has had a lengthy international career with a focus on strategy and digital media development in management positions, principally at the BBC, but also as director of strategy at the global outdoor advertising group Clear Channel. She has a B.S. in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in the U.S.

Peder Bonnier is the CEO and co-founder of KIT, a digital media startup focused on high-quality journalism. Prior to that, most recently he ran the digital business division at Bonnier Tidskrifter. He has held marketing and digital media roles at Unilever and NBC Universal, among others. He currently serves on the board of Bonnier Corporation in the U.S., Mediafy, Beckmans College of Design and IAB Sweden. He has a B.S. from the London School of Economics and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

The afternoon daily rolls out news for popular messaging service apps.

News daily Expressen is now available in two of the most popular messaging apps, Snapchat and WhatsApp, the first paper to do so in Sweden.

"Messaging services are an interesting distribution format for news, and we want to use every chance we can to reach readers, not least a young audience," says Johanna Odlander, editions manager for social media at the paper.

With four different channels - news, opinion, sports and entertainment - users can subscribe to Expressen for WhatsApp to receive daily links. And users can share content on social media to WhatsApp as well, simply by using the new green icon at the bottom of articles on the mobile site. The service is even available for Expressen's popular viral sites Omtalat.nu, Gilladjur.se and Quizzat.

Users who subscribe to Expressen on Snapchat get updates as well, plus some behind-the-scenes and extra content.

A stunning website, The Travel Episodes, from Malik National Geographic offers a special reading experience.

Great storytelling from one of the top German publishers of travel narratives – Malik National Geographic, an imprint of Piper Verlag – has moved from the page to the web with The Travel Episodes, a new online initiative from the publisher.

With Johannes Klaus, an award-winning German travel blogger at the helm as co-curator with Malik National Geographic, The Travel Episodes offers readers a multi-media travel experience complete with videos, stunning photos, interactive maps and more, coupled with top-notch writing from some of Germany’s best travel writers and bloggers. And the site is offered both in English and in German, giving it broad appeal.

“The readers interact with the web page by scrolling, a technique known as 'scrollytelling,' which has been utilized by major newspapers such as the New York Times and Spiegel,” says Kornelia Holzhausen, head of digital media at Piper. “In travel literature, this is an exceptional format on the German market and has been hailed by the press as the future of travel storytelling.”

The site is able to attract some of the best writers because not only does it provide high-quality English translations but the backend was built so that all kinds of formats can be used when publishing stories, from full-screen video backgrounds to maps that dissolve and change as you scroll down. Both of which make it a great marketing tool for the writers, because of the broader audience and the possibility for an elegant showcase for all their material – video, photos and writing.

For Piper, the site is also a marketing win. “Classic book authors and bloggers are extremely sought after by the travel industry and act as their ambassadors,” says Holzhausen. “The Travel Episodes are an ideal environment for cooperations with partners from the travel industry.”

And the publisher is putting some of its own marketing muscle behind the initiative as well. Malik National Geographic books will include advertising for the site – approximately 500,ooo books this year. Plus a link will be included in all of the imprints’ e-books – approximately 100,000 downloads for 2015. And all of the imprint’s authors will plug the site at their readings.

"We're extremely proud of our multimedia platform and are looking forward to stories from authors from all over the world," says Holzhausen. "Including those who have not necessarily previously published with us.”

MTV's CEO Heikki Rotko will leave the company after having spent some 20 years working for MTV, the Finnish TV network. The recruitment process to find a new CEO will start immediately. Jani Koskinen, the current CFO, has been appointed as interim CEO.

Bonnier Growth Media invests in podcasting platform Acast to fast-track its European growth and U.S. launch plans.

Podcast platform Acast has announced the close of a Series A funding round, with a USD 5 million investment from new investor Bonnier Growth Media and existing investor MOOR Capital. Acast is a full-service platform that allows users to discover and share on-demand audio content enhanced with videos, images and links, with bases in Stockholm and London. The funding will be used to expand in Europe and the U.S.

Acast was launched in Sweden in April 2014 by tech entrepreneurs Måns Ulvestam and Karl Rosander, with a U.K. roll-out in late 2014. Since then, it has grown to 1 million unique users with 12 million streams per month and hosts 50 percent of U.K. commercial broadcasts.

“Bonnier has consistently remained at the forefront of innovation, in sync with the needs of both consumers and advertisers, and our support for Acast, a concept at the forefront of the revolution in podcasts, is a reflection of this,” says Ulrika Saxon, CEO of Bonnier Growth Media.

Bonnier Corporation hits the sweet spot when it comes to videos that capture attention.

At U.S. magazine company Bonnier Corporation, every one of the publisher’s 32 brands offers videos to its online readers. Each month, the sites get around 3-4 million plays, says Sean Holzman, Chief Digital Revenue Officer at Bonnier Corporation. We talked with Holzman about what makes for a successful video.

What videos does Bonnier Corporation have on offer?Bonnier's titles produce a lot of content for their websites. Most are short form do-it-yourself or entertainment videos – how-to, tips & techniques and model tests do well in our experience, and they need to be entertaining. Our sweet spot is content that’s 1-3 minutes in length.

How does the advertising work?Video can bring in two or three revenue streams with pre-roll (ads), integration and series sponsorships. Integration and sponsorships need a lot of coordination from sales, marketing and editorial to make them successful. The better the teamwork, the better the product and the better the program does.

What are the key elements for successful videos? First, content ideas that resonate with our audience. Second, knowing what you want to accomplish with the video (what’s the story?). Third, thinking about tie-ins with advertisers. Fourth, editing. And fifth – but maybe this should be first - a great process for getting the content exposed.

See for yourself in three of the most popular videos from Bonnier Corporation from the last 12 months.

The writing life laid bare with 20 of Norway’s top writers in new podcast series BokPod.

What better way to get up close and personal with your favorite writers than to sit down, headphones in place and spoil yourself with an in-depth podcast interview with, say, Roy Jacobsen?

The brand-new BokPod, launched on Wednesday, gives Norwegian book lovers and podcast fans a chance to get inspired with 20 scheduled podcasts, with renowned novelist Jacobsen and 19 other of Norway’s top authors interviewed by well-known Norwegian journalist Hallgeir Opedal of Dagbladet Magasinet.

The podcast series is from book publisher Cappelen Damm and produced together with Monkberry, the production company of Fredrik Skavlan, host of the hit talk show in Sweden and Norway that bears his name.

Each interview is 45-60 minutes long, and Jacobsen was first out, in a wide-ranging discussion that hit on everything from whaling and lumberjacking, to depression and his youth as a small-time criminal.

The podcasts are in Norwegian and are available for free at bokpod.no, iTunes, Cappelen Damm.no and Dagbladet.no, with a new author released every Wednesday. Future authors include Dag Solstad, Vigdis Hjorth, Ingvar Ambjørnsen and Frode Grytten, among others.

“The series was actually Fredrik Skavlan’s idea,” says Ingunn Lindborg, head of product development at Cappelen Damm. “He contacted us and asked if we could imagine being partners in a series. His idea was to create in-depth interviews with Norway’s most important writers.”

Cappelen Damm immediately said yes. “Monkberry is extremely professional, and they brought in probably Norway’s best profile interview journalist, so it wasn’t hard to say yes to being partners,” says Lindborg. “And with Monkberry and Hellgeir Opedal on board, the writers agreed at once as well.”

For Cappelen Damm, BokPod is really another way for it to help get its authors more deserved attention. With cultural news coverage decreasing by mainstream media, and the popularity of the U.S. podcast Serial increasing the public interest in podcasting, doing the series was a natural choice, says Lindborg.

“It’s hard to get coverage of books,” says Lindborg. “Sales channels focus most on bestsellers, which are dominated by crime and entertainment books. Literary authors are less visible to the public than they were a few years ago. So as a major cultural imprint, we want to also publish smaller-scale literature, and we think it’s important to find new ways to make our writers and books more visible. And new digital channels make this possible, from blogs to social media, web TV to podcasting.”

BokPod also receives support from the Fritt Ord Foundation, which supports freedom of expression in Norway.